PM's bear hug for grieving mum

Camera IconPrime Minister Scott Morrison hugs Fiona Ryan, who lost her daughter to an eating disorder.

Fiona Ryan spent five long years trying to save her daughter's life - without much help from the healthcare system.

She and her husband would sit with their daughter Tessa every day, coaxing her to eat, checking her pockets and sleeves for hidden food, looking under her tongue for that last hidden piece of toast.

Fiona slept in the bed next to Tessa to make sure she wasn't waking up to exercise, took long amounts of leave without pay and watched her family go into debt as they battled to keep Tessa alive.

On one desperate day Fiona stood crying in an emergency room for five hours, until someone responded to her pleas for help.

But it was too late for Tessa, who at the age of 17 took her own life, after battling an eating disorder for five years.

"Our family felt like we fought on two fronts, we fought an eating disorder and we felt we fought the system in order to get recognition, support and the treatment that Tess needed," Fiona said on Sunday.

Fiona's tearful, yet bravely told story moved Scott Morrison out of his seat on Sunday, the prime minister enveloping the grieving mother in a long bear hug as she cried on his shoulder.

Mr Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt had just announced that Australians with severe eating disorders will, for the first time, have access to a comprehensive eating plan under Medicare.

Fiona knows firsthand just what a difference such a plan could make.

"I don't know if the changes that have been announced here could have saved Tess but I do know that being able to get help from Medicare would have meant more than just financial support to my family," she said.

"It would have shown us that we weren't fighting alone."

The $110.7 million investment will help patients access up to 40 psychological services and 20 dietetic services each year, under Medicare, from November 2019.

"That is a game changer but it is just part of the game, there is so much more that we will need to do."

The government said the program would be introduced no matter who won next year's election because it was a Medicare item.

"The bravest of families are those who deal with this and regrettably and sadly there is the tragedy of losing a family member, but there is also the tragedy of families being broken apart under the pressure and Australia is stronger when our families are stronger," Mr Morrison said.

Eating disorders have one of the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric illness, with anorexia by far the deadliest mental health condition in Australia.